Best Meat Counter St. Louis 2011 - Baumann's Fine Meats

It's the smell that gets you. At Baumann's Fine Meats, Jim Lucas and his staff smoke their own ribs and chicken and set them out atop the stainless-steel counter, right at nose level. So while you're perusing the steaks and the pork loins and the housemade sausages and the raw slabs of ribs and the piles of wood chips you could throw into your back-yard smoker if you had one, you can't escape that tang of smoke and meat. Its appeal is primal. It's built into the human DNA. And Baumann's does it so well. As you'll find out for yourself, because after you buy whatever you you came in for, and after you've engaged in a little friendly banter with Lucas or one of the other butchers while they total up your bill, and after you've been surprised by the fact that it's going to cost you far less than you'd anticipated, particularly considering the quality of meat you're getting, you can't help it, you're going to say, "Aw, hell, throw in half a smoked chicken, too." And it'll be the best thing you'll eat all week, because, amazingly, it tastes just as good as it smells.